


You're Late

by Demibel



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, I have come to sleep with you, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, because Marius Pontmercy is an awkward duck and I love him, but also fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:41:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demibel/pseuds/Demibel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They fell into an easy closeness that was simple and warm and fond. It was good enough to make them stay. One bed, two bodies, they needed nothing else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Late

“I have come to sleep with you.”

That is where it all started, this odd, lovely friendship between the two of them. It started with the pulling of a spare mattress for Marius to sleep on. Then, during a particular horrid nightmare, Courfeyrac pulled the poor boy onto his own bed, holding him close to comfort him. Long nights of keeping each other warm led to nights of tentative touches and gentle kisses. Light touches become lingering, and gentle kisses became open lips, sucking and biting at pale necks and firm chests. The first time Courfeyrac pinned Marius down and rocked his hips against the other man, leaving the freckled student gasped and writhing and begging for more, they knew that they were in trouble. The first time Marius opened up and took every inch of Courfeyrac in, their groans mingling as they captured each other’s lips in a searing kiss, and they whimpered each other’s names as they chased their respective release, they fell into an easy closeness that was simple and warm and fond. It was good enough to make them stay. One bed, two bodies, they needed nothing else.

Within the month, they would end every night, sweating and panting, legs tangled and whispered words of affection and the smell of their lust laying thick in the air.

They wouldn’t mention anything to their friends, just that Marius was staying with Courfeyrac while he was trying to find a place of his own. They would come to and leave meetings together, and their friends thought nothing of it. They were friends of the highest order, nothing more.

Then, one evening, Marius was late. Courfeyrac was already busy, working with Enjolras and Combeferre, the leader and his lieutenants, poring over texts and maps and guns. The café was thrumming with the light of the revolution, though Marius was nowhere to be found. He slipped in, hoping to remain unnoticed, a deep red flush coloring his pale, freckled cheeks.

“Marius you’re late.” Damn. He nodded to Enjolras with an apologetic smile. It could have been dropped there, had Grantaire and Joly not noticed his flush. They sat near him, pushing wine into his hands and ribbing at him to tell his story.

He chuckled and looked down at his lap, mumbling something about a lovely young woman that he had met. The drunk laughed and nudged him for more information, much to Marius’s embarrassment. Both Enjolras and Courfeyrac looked over, but for very different reasons. Enjolras berated the young man for being late, and for his current lack of interest. What could be more important at the moment than these letters from General LaMarque? A woman was no excuse for distractions. Never mind that half his friends had mistresses, and never mind that Marius was here now, he was discussing things that had no weight on the issues at hand. Marius, thoroughly shamed, fell silent, and didn’t notice the discomfort on Courfeyrac’s face.

 _Oh._ That was a feeling the law student was unused to. Jealousy, betrayal, maybe even anger at this unnamed ghost of a woman that has Marius still looking as if he was caught in a dream. Courfeyrac fiddled with his waistcoat, pretending to focus on the work he had been given, though his mind wandered. He thought back to the previous night, where Marius had fallen asleep against his chest, snoring softly as Courfeyrac ran his fingers through his hair. He had murmured words of love against short, downy hair. He’d never say it out loud, not yet. Not until he was certain Marius felt the same, because if there was one thing Courfeyrac feared most was the rejection of the friends he cared for most of all. So he was content to whisper his I love you’s to the dark, waiting for the night when Marius would be able to hear it, and return the feeling.

Now that future seemed a little further, as Marius pulled the extra mattress onto Courfeyrac’s floor for the first time in weeks. _Oh_. For the first time, they slept alone, though Marius enjoyed dreams of the lovely blonde angel.

Over the next weeks, they became more distant. Marius found another place to stay more often than he stayed with his friend. Courfeyrac found himself growing ever more alone. He took no other mistress to his bed, though he kept up the appearance of being the joyful center they had come to know and love.

He had been ignored, pushed aside in favor of the woman named Cosette. Marius had all but forgotten about his friend. And then, of course, the night on the barricade was fated to be the last night they would spend together. It would be the most painful night Courfeyrac had spent alone, keeping watch over a sleeping Marius, who still pined after his Cosette.

When all was over, and Marius still rested in the land of the living, he would realize what he had lost. When his grandfather asked about his friends and Courfeyrac’s name came, unbidden, to his lips, he broke down. He had lost so much, and though he had gained the love of his beautiful Cosette, he would never be the same man.

He heard them now. Their songs of freedom and joy and love. He waited for them to come and ask him to join their barricade in paradise, but still he lived on. He saw their faces in every store window, and he named his sons for them, and Cosette was understanding through it all. She really was an angel, caring for Marius through his nightmares, through the whimpers of Courfeyrac’s name, through the terrors that would hit him sometimes. And he loved her terribly for it, but even she could not close the wounds that his friends had left.

They grew old, and his nightmares came less often, and he saw the faces of his friends less clearly, and he needed more rest, more often. Cosette left him to join her father, and he mourned her with their children. More time passed and Marius rested on. He lay in his bed one evening, reading by the light of a flickering candle, and there it was, louder than ever. They were singing, a beautiful song of the paradise they had found. He smiled warmly and set his book down, blowing out the candle. He didn’t want to waste the wax, of course.

Combeferre was the first to greet him, shaking his hand and clapping him on the back. The others filtered in, surrounding him with smiles and laughter and hugs. Even Enjolras wore a grin as he clapped the older man’s shoulder. But all of them became background noise as Courfeyrac came forth, his eyes glistening with the joy at seeing his friend and former lover. For the first time in years, the embraced, and Marius pressed his lips to the man’s ear, whispering his words of love for the first time. Courfeyrac held him closer and his words were full of love and happiness and warmth. They were finally able to be spoken aloud, and Marius had a great deal of time to make up.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this is short and angsty, I just had a lot of Courfeyrac/Marius feelings.


End file.
